Michigan ranks among the worst states for identity theft and fraud, a new analysis by a personal finance website shows.

Thereport by WalletHub put Michigan at No. 6, behind California, Rhode Island, Washington D.C., Florida and Georgia, and just ahead of Nevada, Texas, New York and Connecticut.

The Michigan attorney general’s office, which is charged with protecting consumers, suggested that identity theft and fraud is likely not as bad in the state as the report suggests.

“It could be underreported in other states,” Andrea Bitely, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said, challenging the report’s results. “The more people in a state, the more likely you are to be up at the top.”

“But,” she added, “the attorney general is not taking this lightly.”

October has been designated National Cyber Security Awareness Monthby the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

WalletHub, which is based in Washington D.C., compared all 50 states and the nation’s capital this week using a data that looked at identity theft, fraud and public policy aimed at keeping personal information out of the hands of thieves.

While Michigan ranked No. 6 overall, it was No. 8 specifically for identity theft, No. 12 for fraud, and No. 10 for public policy.

Michigan was No. 2 for the most identity theft complaints per capita, behind Washington D.C., and ahead of Florida, and No. 4 for the most fraud complaints per capita, behind, Washington D.C., Florida, and Georgia and ahead of Texas.

“Equifax has proven that absolutely no one is immune to cybercrime,” the report said. “In September 2017, the credit bureau announced that it had fallen victim to one of the biggest data breaches in recent history.”

Moreover, the WalletHub report said: “Even credit bureaus, government agencies, and financial institutions — the organizations consumers trust and expect to treat their confidential information with utmost care and security — cannot take enough precautions to prevent such attacks.”

Earlier this month, Equifax announced that 2.5 million more consumers were impacted by the breach than originally thought, bringing the total number of Michiganders with potentially compromised information to 4.6 million.

To raise awareness of identity theft, the state attorney general’s office is holding two free seminars:

From 12:05 to 12:50 p.m. Friday at 525 West Ottawa Street, Lansing, in the G. Mennen Williams Auditorium.

From 12:05 to 12:50 p.m. Wednesday at 3068 West Grand Blvd., Detroit, in Room L150.

Still, the WalletHub report warned:

“While the federal government and various businesses in recent years have taken more aggressive measures to build up our defenses, criminal strategies continue to evolve and grow in sophistication, keeping consumers vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.”

Busting an international gang ofcredit cardhackers, the cyber wing of Madhya Pradesh Police has arrested two persons on Monday who are accused of making large-scale online purchases by hacking information on credit cards. The two accused, both residents of Mumbai, are suspected to be associated with a gang of international cyber criminals, run by Pakistani citizen Shaikh Afzal aka Shozi.

Speaking after the arrest of credit card hackers, Superintendent of Police (SP) of State Cyber Cell of Indore unit, Jitendra Singh said that two Indian members of this gang, identified as Ramkumar Pillai and Ramprasad Nadar, were arrested following a complaint made by a bank official from Agar Malwa district.

“We have learnt that Shozi is a native of Lahore and got married only last year. Shozi visits different countries across the world. He was in Uzbekistan when Nadar and Pillai talked to him last time through Skype. We are trying to confirm these details,” the Superintendent of Police said.

The duo purchased hacked credit card details from some websites on the dark web and later paid for the information through Bitcoin. “If this payment is measured in terms of Indian currency, it costs only Rs 500 to Rs 800 to buy details of every credit card,” Singh added.

The gang members bought air tickets and travel packages of Bangkok, Thailand, Dubai, Hong Kong and Malaysia by using this information of hacked credit cards. They also shopped costly items online using the hacked details, said the official.

Singh said the accused also used to send half the amount, they spent by misusing the credit card details, to Shozi by secret online methods.

The accused also used to select the online e-commerce website, where they do not need a one-time password (OTP) to make a purchase. So, the holders would get the information about the misuse of credit cards only after the payment.

Singh said initial investigation revealed that both the accused have made purchases of about Rs 20 lakh by misusing the details of 17 credit cards so far. However, this figure may go up after further investigation.

He said that the police have been searching for a resident of Jabalpur, who is also learnt to be connected with this gang.

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